teach me about wills

So the wife and I do not have a will. We need one. Are the 'DIY' wills online any good or is this a 'buck up and call a lawyer' deal only?

If you can find an online will for your jurisdiction, it's probably a decent start, but a lawyer becomes a good investment in a hurry if you want to do anything at all complicated with your assets. Suppose you have three kids and one of them won the lottery so the other two will split basically all your money and the winner's fine with that... are you sure you know how to word a bequest so that if the lottery winner marries a greedy E36M3 between now and when you die they can't tie the estate up in court for years? Or what if you have grandkids but don't trust their parents not to plunder the money that's designated for their college fund?

Personally, I'd just get the lawyer... preferably a youngish one so you can deal with the same person when you revisit things in five years or so.

Well there is Smith:

Ferrell:

Wheaton:

I guess that's technicall a Wil though. If you don't have one you can also grow your own DIY Will Tuna.

sorry...feeling like a smartass today.

It should only cost a couple hundred bucks to have it professionally done. We basically wrote up a detailed narrative of what we wanted to happen, he translated that into Legalese, we reviewed and signed. It was easy, and we should have done it at least 5 years before we finally got around to it.

I found a local attorney who specializes in family law - wills, estate planning, that sort of thing. She set me up with a simple will, and it wasn't very expensive at all - around $200 if I recall correctly. I was referred to her by my financial planner; ask around, there's probably a similar attorney in your area.

You want a will drawn up by a lawyer, and as a general rule, you want it professionally revised whenever you get married and whenever you have a child. It is better to explicitly cover who does and does not get assets and in what situations that might change (if you die while still married, if you die together, if your downstream heirs die then you die, etc.).

I did mine through one of those online deals but that's because mine is about as simple as it gets; I only have one heir. (Shhhh... don't want her to get any ideas.) I also have no weird entanglements with corporate stuff, everything's pretty cut and dried.

Now, my dad's estate was a mess because he had a simple will and very complicated business dealings.

Check with your employer as well. Many employers have estate and will planning as a little known benefit. The professional association to which I belong offers free wills and consultation through the legal coverage.

I can always tell when there has been an issue inside a family because you suddenly realize that you have done Wills, POA's and Living Wills for related persons. I literally give them away because people really need a will package and for whatever reason but mostly denial, wont go see the lawyer to do the deed.

$400 and its done. (Everything is more $$ in Canukistan)

Ours was simple since we have only one kid, and "I being of sound mind and body, I plan to spend it all on car projects anyways".

Talking about eventualities and possible scenarios was part of the value.